Mining company extends Cumbria licences

AIM-listed Cluff Natural Resources has had extensions granted for two underground coal gasification (UCG) licences to include conventional mining in Cumbria.

UGC is a process for exploiting coal that cannot be mined because the seams are too deep, thin or fractured.

It involves using the same sort of drilling technology usually used for fracking to get air/oxygen into the coal seam and then set the seam on fire.

The company is also progressing conventional hydrocarbon licences in the Southern North Sea under a memorandum of understanding with Halliburton – one of the world’s largest oil and gas field services company.

London-based natural resources investment company Cluff is also progressing its flagship Kincardine UCG project in the Firth of Forth in Scotland, the main focus of its activity.